I would like to start of by wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas and New Year.

This is the time of year when most of us have time to relax and think about the past year and the future. What did we do well and what can we do better next time, that is the one thing about growing vegetables, each year you start with a blank canvas and a new picture is painted on the plot.

What has happened this year off the plot?  AMAS and the Edge Lane Society has won an important and significant victory in fighting off the threat of closure of the site. Let us not deminish the emensity of this, Manchester City Council applied to the government for a Section 8 order for the closure of the site under the Allotments Acts. They used the full backing of the legal department and other sections of the councils staff to make a case for closure, even though the factual evidence was weak.

The objections by the Society and AMAS were made on the grounds that the Council’s case was not proven, that actions the council took after the decision to close Edge Lane site and the information supplied in the ‘Section 8 Application’ was incorrect.

The Government Office of the North West rejected the application on all points. This was a complete vindication of all our statements and arguments.

The second item of good news is that this web site has been shortlisted for a national award for web sites. Much of the work toward this shortlisting was done by the staff of MDDA who sorted out a specification for the site and e-connect who designed the site. Many thanks to them, and to all who contribute to the site and to all you who visit the site.

Looking to the future, a meeting has been arranged between AMAS and the councillors who lead the Leisure Section to open a dialogue to discuss the future of Allotments in Manchester. The meeting will take place in late January and we will report back to the committee and the meeting afterwards.

Back to the plot, as I said at the beginning this is the time to plan the new picture for our plots, so let’s hope that the weather is more favourable this year and potato blight does not visit with the same results as this year.

Once again enjoy your Christmas and New Year but don’t forget about the plans for next year.

Strictly speaking, November’s dish started cooking at the back end of September when I cut the last of the summer cabbages before they rotted on the stalk or were eaten by the slugs or both. And what do you do with 20 pounds of white cabbage? There is, after all, a limit to the amount of coleslaw or boiled cabbage that even a glutton can eat. In many parts of Europe the answer would be so obvious the question wouldn’t be worth asking: sauerkraut in Germany, choucroute in Northern France.

Home made sauerkraut

This is what you do. Take:

10lb white or green cabbage
2tbs juniper berries
2 tsp black peppercorns
10 bay leaves
2-3oz coarse sea salt

Halve, or if large, quarter the cabbages. Cut out the cores and discard along with the outer leaves. If your cabbages are anything like ours have been this year, you will also need to wash thoroughly in cold water. You then need to shred the cabbage as finely as you are able, as if you were making coleslaw for 200. Then pack the cabbage in layers in an earthenware crock. Sprinkle each layer with salt, juniper berries and peppercorns and insert bay leaves at random. Put a plate over the top of the final layer and a heavy weight. (I use a 4lb weight sealed in a plastic bag.) Put a clean tea towel over the top of the crock and the lid.

As the cabbage ferments under the weight, it will produce a surprising amount of liquid which will cover the cabbage in no time at all. You should remove any excess liquid together with any scum that forms. Be warned, the process is quite smelly but providing you have used plenty of salt and the liquid covers the top of the sauerkraut, it will not go off. After about a month, the sauerkraut should be ready. It can either be kept in the crock or decanted into large jars. It should keep to several months in a cool place or in the fridge.

Sauerkraut and smoked sausages

Traditionally sauerkraut is cooked with smoked pork, bacon, or as in this simple dish, smoked sausages. The sausages I used came from a Polish delicatessen.

Four 4 you will need

2lb sauerkraut
1 lb onion
2 oz lard
Medium cooking apple.
Glass of dry white wine
8 smoked sausages

Rinse the sauerkraut in cold water and drain. Slice the onions and fry in the lard for a few minutes until they start to soften. A heavy, ovenproof pan in best. Peel, core and slice the apple. Add the sauerkraut and apple to the onions and fry for a few minutes. Then add the wine. Lay the sausages over the top of the sauerkraut, cover and cook at about 150 degrees C for a couple of hours. If you like you sauerkraut to be completely soft, you can cook for longer, up to 4 or five hours, adding the sausages a couple of hours from the end. Serve with boiled potatoes.

A good pub quiz question is what is the second crop of the champagne region of France. The answer, as you will have guessed, is “cabbages”. The champagne method is a means whereby winemakers transform a slightly thin, slightly acidic, dry white wine into something very special. While I sincerely hope that victorious FI drivers do not take to spraying the crowd with sauerkraut, I hope that you will agree that home made sauerkraut is also something special.

PS If anyone knows a vegetarian dish you can use sauerkraut in, please let me know.

When I were lad, Halloween lanterns were carved out of swedes or turnips. In fact, Halloween was mainly something that Americans did because they didn’t have Bonfire Night. Trick or Treat hadn’t been invented and. And although we were familiar with pumpkins, like unicorns they didn’t exist in the real world.

Nowadays almost every allotment plot has patch devoted to at least one variety of winter squash. Even if this year’s crop has not been great, due to the lack of sun, we still have butternut and Hubbard golden squash, both of which are ideal for Halloween soup accompanied by savoury pumpkin cakes and seeds.

Pumpkin Soup with savoury pumpkin cakes and toasted seeds

The quantities I have suggested should serve eight. Split the pumpkin in half and scrape out the seeds with a spoon. You will then have to separate the seeds themselves from the sticky fibre. Weigh out the required quantity, peel and cube.

For the soup you will need:

1 large onion, chopped
3 pt stock
2lb lb pumpkin, cubed
1 large carrot, thinly sliced
1 oz of butter
½ lb potato, peeled and diced
½ pt single cream
Parsley finely chopped, salt and pepper

Prepare the stock according to whatever ingredients you have in hand. (On this occasion, I used onions, celery, carrots, a winter radish, a bunch of herbs and a glass of white wine. Meat or chicken stock would also do.)

In a heavy saucepan, fry the onion gently in the butter. Add the pumpkin and carrot the stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes. The carrot is not essential, but adds colour, particularly if the pumpkin is not fully ripe. Add the potato and continue to simmer until the vegetables are soft. Then liquidise in batches. I also push the soup through a sieve to make sure that there are no bits and that the soup has a rich, velvety texture.

Just before serving, reheat the soup, add salt and pepper to taste, stir in the cream and sprinkle with parsley.

For the savoury pumpkin cakes you will need:

1½ lb pumpkin, cubed
4 oz plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tb sugar
½ teaspoon spice (e.g. cinnamon, allspice, ginger, Chinese 5 spice)
1 egg
Pinch of salt
Sunflower oil
(Makes about 24)

Bake the pumpkin in a hot oven until soft, turning if the edges seems to be browning. While the pumpkin is cooling, pour oil into the bottom of 2 small tart tins, the sort that are used for mince pies. The compartments should be about ¼ full of oil. Put into the hot oven

Meanwhile mash the pumpkin with the sugar, spice, salt and egg. Mix the flour and baking powder and fold into the mixture. When the oil in the tins is very hot, put a spoonful of the mixture in each compartment and back until they are the colour of onion bhajis. About ten minutes should do it. (The ones in the photo went a bit dark, but still tasted fine) Take out of the oven and keep warm. As an alternative, you can deep fry spoonfuls of the mixture of make pumpkin fritters.

While you are reheating the soup, heat a tablespoon of oil over a high flame and then fry the pumpkin seeds with a sprinkling of salt. Drain on kitchen towel once they are golden brown.

Poor Man’s Liver

Obviously you will have lots of pumpkin left over. Pumpkin pie is one possibility. Another is a Sicilian dish, named Poor Man’s Liver. For the same eight people you will need:

2 lb pumpkin cut in ¼” slices, still with the skin attached
2 tbs dried mint
6-8 cloves of garlic, crushed and minced
1 tsp salt
Olive oil for frying
Lemon wedges

(We dry mint in bunches tied across the front of our fireplace. At this time of the year, it has a really strong, fresh taste. You could use a cupful of fresh mint instead.) Heat the oil over a medium flame. When it is hot, lay the slices of pumpkin in the pan and fry. Sprinkle with dried mint, salt and garlic and fry, turning until brown. Serve with lemon wedges and rice or pasta.

For me the year turns when the first frost blackens the leaves of courgettes, withering the stems and killing the fruit. And with the courgettes go the green beans, the summer salad and the rest of it. Thereafter it’s winter veg and food from the freezer. Of course, this change of seasons is highly individual, personal even. Two years ago, it was the first week of September that the fickle finger of frost singled out our plot. Our neighbours, on the other hand - bless them - were cutting courgettes and picking tomatoes right into November!

The other main sign of the change of the seasons is a streaming cold. So, following two nights on which the Met Office had reported zero temperatures and “a widespread ground frost in all parts”, it was with a sense of foreboding and a runny nose that I unlocked the gates to our site. At first sight our plot seemed to have been blighted. The leaves of the French beans had a blackish green fringe and a baby butternut squash lying on the edge of the road had an unhealthy, yellowish tinge. However, on closer inspection, the damage was superficial and the plot had survived its first brush with death and in the heart of the main courgette bed, the leaves were still bright green.

We grow two varieties: a standard green, the name of which I forget, and Gold Rush, which as the name suggests is bright yellow. I can’t tell them apart by taste, but for the dish which I had in mind the contrast between the green and yellow was perfect.

Courgettes & Tomatoes with Garlic and Bay Leaves

Take yellow and green courgettes. Slice them about ½” thick. Throw them into a pan of hot olive oil and fry with a handful of bay leaves, lots of garlic – it’s not necessary to peel the cloves, certainly not necessary to chop them – and more salt than you may think is healthy. The salt is important because it causes the courgettes to brown. You need to keep the oil hot, turning the courgettes with a slotted spoon or spatula. When they are nicely brown, add chopped or whole cherry tomatoes and continue to fry until the skins of the tomatoes split and they start to ooze juice. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and serve with whatever you fancy. You can have them with a plate of pasta or as an accompaniment to most meat but avoid anything with a really delicate flavour which will just be overwhelmed.

Back to the plot. The plant in what had been a hot-bed puzzled me. It had been the most productive, benefiting from protection from the wind and from the bed of now rotted manure into which it had been planted. Although the leaves were still vigorous, it appeared to have given up producing fruit. It took me some minutes to discover the cause: four and a half pounds of cause, in fact, hidden in the undergrowth. A yellow monster, too big to photograph.

“Have you seen this?” I called to my neighbour, who was also down inspecting the frost damage.

“You could always do stuffed marrow,” she suggested. “Split it in two, scoop out the insides…”

In my opinion the trouble with the overgrown-courgette-as-vegetable-marrow solution is that the heat of the oven forms a crust on top of the stuffing while at the same time driving out the liquid from the courgette which is trapped in a pool beneath the stuffing. What you get is not so much baked as boiled. It’s much better, I think, to cut the courgette into generous slices, cut out the seeds and fill the resultant rings filled with stuffing and roast on a baking tray. Onions sautéed in olive oil, mixed with chopped tomatoes, mushroom and fresh herbs and combined with breadcrumbs works well.

The other trouble with the stuffed marrow solution, of course, is that it wasn’t going to work very well with the courgette and tomato dish. So this is what I did.

Marrow Ginger

Split the courgette/marrow lengthways and scoop out the seeds. Then peel it. It is important to remove all the peel and the fibrous bits around the seeds as they will never soften in the cooking. Cut it into ¾” cubes and put into a heavy pan. For 4lbs of prepared courgette, grate or finely chop the peel of one lemon, and add to the courgette with the juice of three lemons. Peel and finely chop a 2” piece of fresh ginger. Add to the courgette. Take about 20 green cardamom pods, extract the tiny black seeds and add these. Add three pounds of sugar and slowly bring the pan to a simmer, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Cook gently for half and hour or so until the courgette becomes translucent. Then allow to cool.

Marrow (or courgette) ginger will keep for months in a jar in the fridge. The exact proportions are not critical. If you use an equal quantity of sugar to fruit, you will end up with marrow ginger jam. The cardamom seeds are optional and the quantity of ginger can be varied to taste. The dish is very rich and a little goes a long way. Serve with Greek-style yoghurt, which cuts through the richness, rather than cream.

And after all that garlic, lemon and ginger, the streaming cold with which I woke up was gone. The sun is shining and, who knows, perhaps we’ll be picking summer veg into November.

The last few weeks have been busy on the plot with the weather so warm. I have planted out my potatoes for this year and tidied up the bed so that they can be earthed up as they come through to keep the frosts off!

I have transplanted some shrubs into the garden area from the pots that they have been growing in, until they were big enough to go out.
With the weather being so mild, I have also sown several rows of beetroot and a few rows of parsnips. The parsnips were sown into compost which filled the holes I made with a steel bar, this ,hopefully, will give me straight parsnips with just one leg.